Reverse Engineering Tutorials: Learn RE Through Hacking Games and Making Malware Parsing Tools from Scratch

[jeFF0Falltrades]

Hey UpdatedSecurity fam: I hope all of you are doing well and fending off any burnout, stress, or long days that often plague our field.

 

If you or anyone you know is trying to get more well-versed in reverse engineering, I published another RE "mini-course" this past week, and I wanted to share it here (as well as my two older videos) in case they are useful to you or someone you know trying to build their RE/malware analysis skills.
 

I don't get to post very often to this YT channel, but when I do, I try to maximize quality over quantity, with a focus on comprehensive, but fun tutorials that don't take themselves too seriously, in order to ease beginners into RE and allay some anxiety of digging into such a broad and deep skillset.

Feedback from beginners to experts is always appreciated, and I hope this series is able to provide value to you or someone you know; Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Newest Video:
Reverse Engineering and Weaponizing XP Solitaire (Mini-Course)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmPArvsSii4

Previous Videos:

Baby’s First Malware Config Parser: Mini-Course w/ dnSpy+CyberChef+Python
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV0x7kNZ_Yc

Reverse Engineering/Game Patching Tutorial: Full Res Roller Coaster Tycoon with Ghidra+x64dbg+Python
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwBoUuy4nGc

Edited November 28, 2022 by jeFF0Falltrades
Hyperlinks didn't work; Added raw links

[fivesam]

I'm on the path to learn RE.

I'm currently taking an udemy course on assembly, and previously I took a c++ course. Nothing too deep in either of them, just the basics so that I can understand what I see once I start with the reversing (hopefully in the next 1-2 months). I didn't want to start running before walking, so I set this couple of goals before getting into bussiness (I don't know if it is a waste of time, but I thijk is helping me a lot)

Any tips for a newbie in the field?

[jeFF0Falltrades]

@fivesam That's sounds like a phenomenal plan: It seems like you're doing all of the right things to set up a good foundation. I typically recommend at least building a baseline understanding of assembly and C/C++ as scaffolding before trying to dive headfirst into reversing.

I'm sure there's a lot of wisdom that could be shared by the members here, but my personal advice would be to start out by making it fun - For me that's trying to cheat at games or try to make them do weird stuff. Take a look a spread of different kinds of programs and set small goals, change little things here or there, make hypotheses about what will happen and test them.

The mistake I see most often is people trying to get into RE and getting overwhelmed and frustrated that they can't tell exactly what's happening in the first 30 minutes of looking at a program.
Like every other skill, it takes time. And you'll never stop finding new things to learn. So there's no rush to master it. 

And if you are looking to get into it professionally, build a blog or repo and start publishing notes/stories from RE escapades you've done; It helps to have even a small portfolio to show what you've learned.

[fivesam]

9 minutes ago, jeFF0Falltrades said:

@fivesam That's sounds like a phenomenal plan: It seems like you're doing all of the right things to set up a good foundation. I typically recommend at least building a baseline understanding of assembly and C/C++ as scaffolding before trying to dive headfirst into reversing.

I'm sure there's a lot of wisdom that could be shared by the members here, but my personal advice would be to start out by making it fun - For me that's trying to cheat at games or try to make them do weird stuff. Take a look a spread of different kinds of programs and set small goals, change little things here or there, make hypotheses about what will happen and test them.

The mistake I see most often is people trying to get into RE and getting overwhelmed and frustrated that they can't tell exactly what's happening in the first 30 minutes of looking at a program.
Like every other skill, it takes time. And you'll never stop finding new things to learn. So there's no rush to master it. 

And if you are looking to get into it professionally, build a blog or repo and start publishing notes/stories from RE escapades you've done; It helps to have even a small portfolio to show what you've learned.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

I'm a bit of a fan of CTF's (or crackmes as they are called in this field if I'm not wrong) so I guess that that will be my main source of joy in this matter. But I have seen some videos out there about cheating on Age of Empires II and such games that I definitely want to try. I'm also amazed about the speedrun glitch hunters and want to learn more about it.

I've subscribed to your channel so that I can watch your videos once I start with RE.

Again, thank you for your advices!

[jeFF0Falltrades]

56 minutes ago, fivesam said:

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

I'm a bit of a fan of CTF's (or crackmes as they are called in this field if I'm not wrong) so I guess that that will be my main source of joy in this matter. But I have seen some videos out there about cheating on Age of Empires II and such games that I definitely want to try. I'm also amazed about the speedrun glitch hunters and want to learn more about it.

I've subscribed to your channel so that I can watch your videos once I start with RE.

Again, thank you for your advices!

It is incredible what speed runners manage to find, just to get that extra millisecond off their RT hahaha. 
 

No problem! Enjoy the journey and hope you enjoy the vids when you get to them!